LOi%i 

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029 908 694? 



Hollinger Corp. 
P H8.5 



AN 



IXAUGURAL ADDRESS, 



J)ELIV1RID T.T 



CfEORGHTOWN. lilf* 



JTLY 26, 1S30, 



I. Bi&ON, 



BY JOEL S. BACON, A- $L 

OF TBTE GEORGETOWN COLLEGES 



PUBLISHED BY REV7EST OP TBE BOARD OF TRUST : 



GEORGETOWN, KY. 
PRINTED BY N. L, FLN">~ELL, 

1830, 



i* ax ca: B. ^L. ^TVDBE S S . 



low-Ci~ 

To an American citizen, everv thiug connected with the 
preservation of our liberties — with the security of that pre- 
cious boon which Heaven has gi anted us. in the gift of civil 
us freedom — canrot fail to be deeplv interesting. 

It is :al for us, when contenr . the prospect that 

lies before us as a nation, to inquire, with som^ degree of soli- 
cits ] be the of the present state and order of 
things? — Of our system of government, and of the free repub- 

an institutions, which we enjoy? What is to be the issue of 
that grand experiment of self-government, which is now in 
progress bv an enlightened and intelligent people — an experi- 
ment, in which are interested not only our own citizens, and 
the multitudes of their descer.dants.-who are yet to occupy the 

ge of human life — but other millions, who, from every por- 
tion of the civilized world, are gazing with intense anxiety 
upon the operation of a system which promises, if successful, 
to furnish to every nation on earth, ^hich is capable of appre- 
ciating and enjoying its advantages, the model of a social com- 
pact which secures the g amount of freedom aod of hap- 

.ess. cor. :q the nature of man, and the constitution 

of civil society. 

In the result of inquiries like these, we cannot, with a due 
regard for our welfare, and for that of our fellow-men around 
us, but feel a deep and lively interest. To the destiny of 
hopes like those inspired by only a brief survey of our past 

story* and by a single glance at the bright futurity which 
opens up in prospect before us. no rational man can be indif- 

rent. It becomes us. then, as citizens of a free republic, to 
cheri=h a due regard for all of its great and important inter- 
ests: to maintain a watchful observance of the course of 
events: and to endeavor, by all the means in our power, to 

ird against the threatening dangers which may beset its 
pat! 

We do but justice to the venerable heroes of our revolution, 
when we render to them, f: r valor and patriotism, the 

hig ibute of our grateful admiration. To them, under 

God, we owe the inestimable privileges we now enjoy; and 



We should be justly chargeable with the basest ingratitude, 
were not their names and their virtues ever held by up, in 
affectionate remembrance. But our duty to ourselves, and to 
succeeding generations, stops not here. Upon us devolves the 
charge of those invaluable rights and privileges which were 
purchased at the price of so much blood and treasure, and 
often, too, at the expense of sacrifices, even dearer than life 
itself. We owe it to the memory of those who nobly conse- 
crated, upon the altar of liberty, "their lives, their fortunes, 
and their sacred honor," to preserve the precious gem thus 
dearly bought, untarnished; and to hand it down to posterity 
undiminished in its splendor and unshorn of its beauty. It is 
the bright memorial of achievements more renowned than any 
others which grace the page of our history; and if cherished with 
proper care, it will ever prove like a charm against those dire 
calamities which have befallen other nations, whose star of 
glory is set in everlasting night. 

To us, then, the inquiry comes fraught with considerations 
of the highest moment— How we may discharge the great and 
important duties which rest upon us as American citizens?— 
How we may corflribute most to the stability and perpetuity 
of those invaluable institutions which have been handed down 
to us from our forefathers; which are at once the blessings and 
the ornaments of our country; and in whose integrity and du- 
rability, the political and moral destiny of unborn millions is 
involved? 

One answer which I propose to these important inquiries is, 
by encouraging a system of education adapted to the genius, 
and in some degree commensurate with the wants, of our 
country. 

This, it is believed, is the best — indeed, the only appropriate 
means of effecting all that we could desire for the permanence 
of our blessings, and for the happiness of our country. And 
this is not all; such a plan is not only desirable for the purpose 
of improving generally the condition of man, nor for the bene- 
fit only of a more refined and elevated circle of society; but 
it is believed to be absolutely necessary for the very support 
and existence of our. civil government. Without it, no perma- 
nent authority, short of absolute despotism, can ever be main- 
tained. To think of governing intelligent men, by the fear 
only of corporal punishment — by the restraints of mere physi- 
cal force — is preposterous in the extreme. His body you may, 
indeed, for a time fetter and control; but "the enlightened, 
rational, heaven-born soul of man, who can tame?" True it 
is, that by neglect, or improper culture during the season of 
youth, the spring time oHife, you may suffer the seeds of vice 
and immorality, "sown by an^nemv's hand," tospringup in the 
bosom: Yon may allow the noxious plants to grow up to a 



fearful maturity, so that no human power shall be sufficient 
eradicate them. From the tender years of infancy, when 
there sleeps in his breast the embryo of all that is amiable ir. 
morality and in the social virtues, together with the germp of 
every 6erce and baneful passion, you may bring forth upon 
the stage of life, a monster in the shape of man; prapared to 
diffuse around him the poison of his own cup; to spread ruin 
and desolation in his path: and to sink at last, in disgrace and 
infamy; a frightful monument of moral depravity and mental 
degradation ! From the very first step of such a downward pre* 
gress, would we save, if possible, the youth of our country, bv 
bringing them early within the reach of proper intellectual 
and moral culture; by furnishing them with ample means oi 
knowing; what is for their greatest £ood ; and by placing before 
them the strongest motives that can influence an intellig- 
mind, to pursue the path of rectitude, and to render their, 
selves blessings and ornaments to society. It is effect 9 ] 
those (to which we have just alluded) that a judicious system 
of education is designed, and is eminently calculated to coun- 
teract. To check the wavward propensities of the young ai 
inexperienced; to regulate their habits and dispositions: 
instil into their minds correct moral sentiments; and in sh: 
to give •'form and censistenev" to the whole character, which 
the events of future life will rarely, if ever counteract, rr 
be the great object of anv plan of education which is foi 
on iust and rational principles. And here, for our encour.r 
merit in an arduous and difficult task, we have the assurai 
that the fruit of our labor shall be an abundant reward 

rtoil: For as certainly as there is truth in the declaratk 
of wisdom, or order and harmony in the moral government 
the universe, the course of nature shall not be changed.-^* 
"According to wbat a man sow^th. that shall he also rea;: 
And.** Train up a child in the way he should go, and when . 
;s old he will not depart from it." 5 

In any general plan, it will be ncrr.iHed or. all hares. 
primary schools for juvenile education, are of th 
rirst importance. No community, it is believed, cin Sq 
ish long without them; none can long enjoy the priv: :_ 
of a free people, or of a liberal and enlightened govcrnuv 
They are the boast of our cou try, as the means of diffusii 
universally, that amount of intelligence and information w 

iccessan to render her ettizei ? virtuous and ei en 

freemen. It is, doubtless, this universal diffusion of intelli- 
gence among all rar.ks and classes of th* community, which si 
are to regard as the gr<; id palladium of our nati ibertj; 

our strongest defence a roachn 

th< pfetfee ol " tionai prosperity, 

chief pillar and 

ican, republicau ireedom. 



6 

Nor are these primary schools important, merely as foun» 
tains of knowledge and intellectual improvement to the young. 
Here are usually made the first developemonts of character. 
Habits and disposition are formed, which will exert an incalcu- 
lable influence over all the future destiny of the man. Who 
does not refer to the scenes of his childish sports; to the discip- 
line of his school-boy days, for much of what has given a col- 
ouring to all the events of his subsequent life? How important, 
then, that these elementary institutions; these nurseries, in a 
great degree, of whatever is to constitute the moral and intel- 
lectual character of the American people; be every where 
carefully cherished, and that their advantages be every where 
enjoyed! In their number, and their efficient management, 
we feel assured, is involved all that is grand in the prospect, 
and splendid in tlfe destiny of our beloved country! It may, 
indeed, seem inappropriate, on an occasion like the present, 
before an enlightened audience, like that which I now have 
the honor to address, to advocate, strenuously, a system of com- 
mon-school education; but so deeply am I impressed with the 
importance of the subject, and so fully am 1 convinced of the 
utility of system^ in the plan adopted, that I could not withhold 
this slight expression of my sentiments. 

Let then^ these fountains of elementary knowledge be pre- 
served pure and uncorrupted: Let their healing streams be 
carried to 'every village and hamlet in the«nation: And let 
every individual feel that the safety and happiness of his 
country depend upon the regard he cherishes for these, the 
cradle of her geniuses, the nurseries of her young and tender 
spirits! 

But our public literary institutions, of a more elevated char- 
acter, our academies, colleges, and other seminaries of learn- 
ing, bear a no less important part, in such a system of educa- 
tion as is adapted to the character, or adequate, in any de- 
gree, to the wants of our country. To these institutions we 
must look for the education of most of the young men, who 
are to fill stations of the highest trust, and most extensive use- 
fulness in our country; who are to constitute a large majority 
in the several learned professions, and to fill the stations of in- 
structors of the youth and rising generation; who are to be 
the dispensers of public justice from the judicial bench — to 
guide our political destinies in the several exective depart- 
ments, and in our halls of legislation; who are to figure in our 
literary history — to fix the standard of public taste at home— 
and to give our country character and reputation abroad, in 
all the higher departments of learning and the arts. 

Those voung men, too, who resort to these public institu-* 
tions for purposes of education, however far they may previ 
ously have advanced, in the formation of their individual char- 
acters, are yet, in most instances, to make the short period of 



their collegiate course — the one eventful crisis — the grand c 
macteric of their lives. New habits, and modes of thinking, 
are acquired: hew plans of life are adopted; and a permanent 
foundation laid, for whatever of excellence is to distinguish 
the future man. 

It is a notorious, and not unfrequently a melancholy fact, 
that most young men, who enjoy the advantages of a liberal 
education, with the opportunity thus afforded them for pre- 
paration, make this the grand starting point in that career of. 
splendor and usefulness, or of disgrace and infamy, which 
mark the geniuses, and unhappilv divide the men of greatest 
talents, and intellectual endowments of any age or country. 

Since then, the instructions afforded, and the moral and 
intellectual discipline adopted at such institutions, are to form 
the character, and, under God, to fix the destiny of hundreds 
and thousands of our young men of greatest promise, who v 
go forth into public life, prepared to exert the widest influ- 
ence, and to scatter farthest, the effects of their own mental 
energies and acquisitions; who are to guide the opinions, and 
to control the inclinations of multitudes oi their fellow-mem 
upon subjects connected with the vita] interests of communi- 
ty — Is it not a matter of the highest importance that they be 
regarded with the consideration, and that they he cherished 
with the careful solicitude which their exalted station and 
purpose demand? Let institutions of this kind, then, be f< 
tered by the patronage and liberality of a community, deeply 
sensible of their ,nce to its truest interests, and 

its highest happiness. 

My friends — methinks I see, in the occasion which has this 
day called us together, a pleasing proof that this subject has 
dwelt upon your minds with much of its high and moving in- 
terest. You have appreciated, in some good degree, at least 
the value of a more extended course of education, and have 
contributed liberally, for the purpose of securing to the youth 
and rising generation around vou, its inestimable advantages* 
May the noble efforts, which you are thus making, in conjunc- 
tion with others, be crowned with the most complete and grat- 
ifying success! May the institution, which shall thus be 
reared by the munificence, and sustained by the patronage of 
an enlightened communitv. be rendered an efficient instru- 
ment of extensive usefulness! And may it long continue a con- 
spicuous monument of the enlightened zeal and patriotism of 
those who generously contributed to its foundation and to its 
ultimate success! 

But it is not solely to the routine of school-boy studies, 
nor yet to the more elevated pursuits, and the liberal discip= 
line of a College course, that we are to look for all the 
practical results which we contemplate in the formation 
of individual character. These are far from being all the 



ft 

causes which are concerned in producing the groat variety of 
tastes, of habits, and propensities which are materially to af- 
fect^ and in a great degree, to control his conduct through life. 
A system of education in its widest sense must embrace all 
those combinations of circumstances in which the youth is 
trained up from infancy to the time wheivhe steps forward up- 
on the stage of life — prepared to mingle in its busy scenes, and 
to exert an influence through all the circle of society with 
which he is connected. Much, then, very much, must be left 
to the effect of parental discipline. 

No one, who has not reflected deeply upon the subject, can 
appreciate the importance of those early instructions which 
are communicated during the tender years of childhood, when 
the mind is susceptible of any impressions, which surrounding 
objects and the thoughts and feelings of others, such as are 
adapted to its capacity, are calculated to give. The tales re- 
lated to us in our infancy are never forgotton; the first ele- 
ments of knowledge acquired in the nursery are to he the 
foundation of all our future acquisitions; and the sentiments 
and feelings there imbibed, we shall carry with us to the latest 
day of our lives. Who, then, can estimate the Importance of 
a parent's charge, in the early education of his offspring? 

In our own favored country, far more than in any other, 
is it in the parent's power to direct the fortunes, and, under 
Providence, to control the destinies Of his children. In other 
countries, there are adventitious circumstances of birth and 
fortune, which render it next to impossible, for an individual 
to travel beyond that sphere of life, to which he may seem 
thus to have been destined. But with us, distinctions of rank, 
save those of personal worth, and individual merit, are almost 
wholly unknown. Every avenue, in private life, to wealth 
and respectability, or in public, to reputation, to honor and 
usefulness, is open alike to all — "opifex fortunae quisque fit" — • 
every man becomes emphatically the artificer of his own for- 
tune. 

As the natural and appropriate consequence of that course 
of discipline and education, which he has himself adopted, 
the father may see his son become the inmate of a College, 
or of a Counting-House, the promising candidate for profes- 
sional distinction; or the successful competitor for fame in the 
higher walks of literature, or in the arena of political life. 
But, alas! this is not all — as, in a great measure, the unhappy 
result of his own want of paternal care, or of kindness, misdi- 
rected, his heart may be pained, and his cup of earthly enjoy- 
ment deeply imbittered, by seeing his son become a miserable 
outcast from society; the tenant of a dungeon, or, perhaps, 
exposed to suffer, still more ignomimously, the penalty of 
crimes committed against the laws, the peace and safety of 
bis country. 



9 

. in like manner, the labors of maternal love, judiciously, 
otherwise employed, mav render the object of a mother's ten- 
derest solici f uie, the grace and ornament of her sex; the de- 
voted wife: the respected matron; beloved and honored by 
all who know her, and who can appreciate the excellence of 
moral worth, and of domestic virtues. Or. unhappily, on the 
other hand, they may cause her to reap the bitter fruits of 
female indiscretion, in lasting regret and unavailing sorrow. 
Lot it not be supposed, then, that those parents can remain, 
wholly unchargeable with the destiny of their offspring, who, 
by a« utter neglect or a gross mismanagement of their educa- 
tion, greatlv increase the dangers that beset the paths of youth, 
and multiply, indefinitely, the chances of their ruin. 

But. in order. to render the system of moral and intellectual 
discipline complete, there is c; , which, from its im- 

portance, demands particular attention. I refer to what may 
be very properly denominated the religious part of education. 
By this term, however, I mean not the inculcation of any sec- 
tarian creed — not the peculiar tenets of any denomination of 
Christians. On these subjects, the minds of youth who resort 
to a public literary institution, which professes not to be sec- 
tarian in its character, should, doubtless, be left perfectly free. 
The scriptures are open — let them examine for themselves. 
But the great and fundamental truths of Christianity: those 
general principles, which lie at the very foundation of all mor= 
als and religion: and which need only to be understood by an 
unprejudiced and ingenuous mind, to be believed — should be 
made an essential part of education, wherever it is desired that 
man should know and properly estimate the duties he owes tc 
God and to his fellow-man; or where it is wished that men 
should be treated as rational, moral, and therefore accounta- 
ble bei gs. 

However strongly the charge c: im may 

be urged against those who consider this a subject of parr 
mount importance; no one, upon the slightest reflection, can 
fail to perceive the utility — nay, the absolute necessity of in- 
culcating every where, upon society, the restraints of moral 
and religious obligation. It has been found necessary for the 
maintenance of social order, in all age:, and among all nations 
of the world. Man is, by nature, a religious being. You 
cannot, if you would, free him, wholly, from the consciousness 
that he is accountable to some tribunal, for the rectitude of his 
moral conduct. Divest, him of the motives to morality, which 
this supplies: let him loose upon the world, fearless of a God — ■ 
of an unerring tribunal of justice, and a future state of perfect 
ribution; and you send him forth, a reckless wanderer, amiu 
rth's scenes of misery and crime, prepared only to mingle 
r . fury of his own malignant passions, with the wretchedce- 



10 

Of that existence, which is without the hope of life and immoi> 
tality beyond the grave. 

Let it not be urged, then, nor felt, that the salutary re- 
straints of religious obligation, are calculated to subserve 
only the cause of superstition and fanaticism. Desecrate 
the temples of the living God, and demolish the shrines of 
religious worship in our country, and it will require no long 
deductions of reason, and but a single argument drawn from 
the results of universal experience, to show that the horrors of 
the French revolution were but a single act, in that frightful 
drama, which would render the world one dreadful scene of an- 
archy, violence and bloodshed ! I rejoice, however, in the be- 
lief, that there are very few — -I could hope, none, who would 
deliberately blot out the sun from our moral heavens; who 
would banish the light of Christianity from the earth, and leave 
mankind to the cheerless gloom of Atheism, or to the darkness 
of Heathenism and Pagan Idolatry. 

It may, perhaps, be expected, that something will be said, 
at this time, upon the comparative merits of the different plans 
of education, which have been proposed to the public for con* 
sideration, and many of which are now in the progress of expe- 
riment, in the various Literary Institutions of our country. A 
particular notice of all, or, indeed, any considerable number 
of these, would lead me into useless detail. A glance only, 
can be taken at one or two of the general divisions. 

This is truly an age, abounding in improvements, and proli- 
fic in invention; it breathes the very spirit of enterprise in eve- 
ry department of human thought, feeling and action. But 
the tendency of public sentiment is to alternate extremes; to 
extravagance in novelty. It needs to be occasionally checked, 
by the cool calculations of reason; by the results of calm and 
sober reflection. 

There has been, within a few years past, a strong disrelish 
manifested, in the public mind, for the ancient regimen, the 
old established order of things, in regard to education. Ma- 
ny have been of the opinion, and among these, some very 
learned and judicious men, that in the course of studies pre* 
scribed in our Colleges, generally, too much time and atten- 
tion were required to the Dead Languages, and the ancient 
classics; that most of the youth of our country, being requir- 
ed to be trained up for the active and ordinary business of 
life, there could be very little necessity for their acquiring an 
extensive knowledge of these abstract, and, therefore, less 
useful branches; that a decidedly more practical discipline 
was required; a course, it has been conceived, better calcu- 
lated to fit them for the real and active employments in which 
they were to be engaged. These, and many other objections 
of like character, have been urged with much zeal, and, it 
must be confessed, with no little 'plausibility, against the or- 



11 

dinary course of instruction, pursued in our Colleges and other 
Literary Institutions of the higher order We have much 
reason for gratitude, that these and similar queries have been 
started, and that much, which, we may hope, will prove to be 
useful discussion, has been elicited upon this important sub- 
ject. It has led to a review of the whole ground; to a more 
thorough investigation, and, it is believed, a much better un= 
derstanding of the whole subject of education; its great design 
and object, and of the best means of attaining that object. 
Many of the most learned and intelligent men of our country, 
have individually been induced to make it a subject of deep 
and mature reflection. Committees of public literary institu- 
tions, have been selected for the express purpose of examining 
deliberately, and of reporting their sentiments upon the subject. 

And the concurrent testimony of all these authorities, so far 
as it has yet been ascertained, is, that, although in commu- 
nicating instruction; in the imparting of knowledge, in all the 
various departments of learning and the arts, there is, doubt- 
less, much room for improvement, and much may be expected; 
yet, in the course and order of studies, ordinarily prescribed 
for a liberal education, no essential alteration should be made; 
that the study of the ancient classics, and the higher branches 
of Mathematicks, should, by no means, be dispensed tfith in 
our public literary institutions; and that the interests of learn- 
ing, and the highest purposes of education, will be best secur- 
ed by a continuance of the present general plan, modified only 
by such improvements as are calculated to render it more 
efficient, and, perhaps, more extensively applicable to the com* 
mon arts and business of life. 

What, in truth, is the grand design and object of what is 
properly called a liberal education? Is it the acquisition of 
facts only — mere insulated truths — such as are afforded abun- 
dantly by the ordinary phenomena of nature, and the common 
business of life? It is about these, truly, that the instruction, 
commonly termed practical, is chiefly employed: But is there 
not something of vastly greater importance, and which comes 
still nearer to the foundation and ground work of a thorough 
education? Is it not, after all, the discipline of the mind, which 
it is the great object of an intellectual education, particularly 
in its earlier stages, to secure; rather than the mere acquisi- 
tion of knowledge, however desirable it may be, in any of the 
departments of learning, or in any of the branches of human 
science? It is, indeed, this discipline, if it be thoroughly and 
judiciously conducted, which prepares the mind for the recep- 
tion of knowledge, whether from books, or from the contempla- 
tion of nature; or from any other of all that infinite variety of 
sources which furnish appropriate subjects for human thought 
and investigation. The first object to be aimed at in a well 
directed course of intellectual discipline, is doubtless; by a 



A 



careful and judicious exercise of all of its powers and faculties 
to strengthen and invigorate the mind. It is, in fact, by such 
.a process only, that the mind can ever reach a perfect and full 
maturity. For, like the body, if consigned to inactivity, or if 
it be subjected only to occasional and irregular efforts, it at- 
tains to but a sickly growth; or from a widely disproportionate 
developement, it comes to resemble rather the deformity of a 
shapeless and unsightly monster, than the beauty and symme- 
try of nature's perfect work. Now it is precisely this kind of 
appropriate and judicious mental exercise, to which I have just 
alluded, that the system of education, whose merits we are at 
this moment discussing, is calculated to supply; and to no part 
of that system is the fact just stated, more applicable, than to 
the study of the dead languages. Here we have occasion for 
the vigorous exertion of all the faculties of the mind. Per- 
ception, memory, judgement, reason, are alikf actively and prof- 
itably employed; so that no kind of studies, (and I believe the 
fact is generally admitted by those who are capable of judging 
in the case) affords to the mind, in all its active powers, great- 
er, if as much improvement. All this, too, besides the advan- 
tages which such studies afford to the student, in furnishing 
him with the means of acquiring readily, the technicals of al- 
most every profession; by unlocking to him the rich treasures 
of ancient literature ; by supplying him with a vast variety, and 
some of the noblest specimens of thought, of feeling, and of 
sentiment, which the inspiration of poetry and eloquence has 
ever produced. Rut, what is more than all, particularly to 
him, who regards the volume of Divine inspiration, as a treat 
sure of inestimable value; it enables him to consult the sacred 
oracles, in the languages in which they were originally written, 
from whence there may be drawn innumerable illustrations, 
which no mere translation can ever supply. 

But again: The next great object, in an intellectual edu- 
cation, is to furnish the mind with general principles, and 
with methods of investigation. Mere facts are chiefly de- 
pendant upon the memory; are, in general, easily acquired, 
and when not constantly recurring, are as easily forgotten; 
but general facts — rules which are every day in practice — sre 
without difficulty retained, for all the important purposes for 
which they are designed. When once it has obtained the 
command of its own powers, now somewhat matured and 
strengthened by an appropriate system of exercise; when it is 
furnished with general rules, with the modus operandi in all the 
various departments, into which the subjects of human know- 
ledge naturally divide themselves— the mind comes forth to 
the investigation of truth, prepared to exert a power, and to 
act with an energy, which it is believed, no other course of 
discipline, can possibly enable it to acquire. It is to a result 
like this, that the study of Mathematics, and the abstruse branch= 



13 

in an e^ 
their appropriate othce to stiei gtnen and invigorate the rea- 
soning power?: to induce habits of pa nd of thorc 1 
investigation: In short, to fit the mind for some of its noblest 
and most success: bl efforts in t m of truth, of r 
and of humanity. 

Thus, we see, from the very sligl.: 
taken, that no part of which 

view of tho- »e opinions are. and ought to be re: 

eral education can well be ere better, me- 

thinks. far better, if possible, to i the youth of our coun- 

trv vrith greater encouragements to avail themsr f all 

the advantages rich a thorough and extended course of 
education can afford: re themse 

acting their part in 1 epptance; and for 

becoming more exter 



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